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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
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Published on: November 15, 2019
Anatomical and functional outcomes after heavy silicone oil tamponade in vitreoretinal surgery for complicated
Daniele Tognetto1, Daniela Minutola, Giorgia Sanguinetti
1Eye Clinic, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. tognetto@univ.trieste.it
Purpose:
To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a heavy silicone oil (HSO) tamponade for complicated retinal detachment (RD) surgery.
Design:
Prospective consecutive interventional case series study.
Participants:
The study included 26 patients with RD complicated by severe proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) in the inferior quadrants.
Methods:
All patients underwent pars plana vitrectomy with an internal tamponade using HSO. This tamponade was obtained by mixing 30% by volume perfluorohexyloctane and 70% by volume silicone oil, 1000 millipascal-seconds (polydimethylsiloxane 1000).
Main Outcomes Measures:
Anatomical and functional results and complications at 1 year of follow-up.
Results:
Twenty-four of 26 patients achieved anatomical success, defined as complete retinal reattachment. Postoperative visual acuity (VA) values ranged from hand movements to 20/25, with 69.2% of patients obtaining VA better than 20/400. Postoperative complications included early postoperative ocular hypertension in 30.7% of cases, which was easily controlled. Dispersion was noted in 1 case and was not felt to be significant. A cataract requiring surgical removal developed in 2 cases, and an after cataract developed in 3 cases.
Conclusions:
In this pilot study, the HSO tamponade obtained by mixing 30% perfluorohexyloctane and 70% polydimethylsiloxane 1000 was associated with a high rate of anatomical success after vitrectomy in cases of RD complicated by severe PVR (greater than CP-6 and greater than CA-6 [updated Retina Society PVR classification]).
